BRUSSELS -- If pressure groups have their way, the European Commission will likely draft measures aimed at substituting polyvinyl chloride with polyethylene and polypropylene as much as possible.
Following the adoption of a green paper on the environmental effects of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, EU Commissioners Margot Wallstrom and Erkki Liikanen, respectively responsible for environment and enterprise, organized a public hearing on the matter, before drafting a community strategy on the environmental issues of PVC, to be presented at the beginning of 2001.
Wallstrom said in her opening speech that the commission hadn't yet made up its mind about either issuing a PVC directive, or accepting the industry's voluntary environmental commitment, or a mix of both.
Representatives of the industry told the meeting they are "voluntarily committed" to improving their environmental record. Their efforts include phasing out the use of cadmium in PVC and efforts to step up recycling of PVC.
Not good enough, according to Greenpeace, which demands full legal action from the commission. Other opponents of the industry laid bare solid indications that link the production and disposal of PVC with severe health and environmental problems.
"The only solution for the PVC industry is transformation," said Marie Kranendonk-Schwartz, president of Women in Europe for a Common Future, or WECF, as the health risks caused by the dioxine and the phthalates in PVC largely outweigh the advantages of the product. Polypropylene doesn't contain chlorine, nor phthalates.
PVC can be transformed and molded into thousands of products, from tubing and building materials, to coating for electric wires and medical applications.
The product itself has many advantages, the defendants argue. It's durable, reliable and allows the creation of many innovative products.
But even if PVC tubes don't leak and have a long life, not contaminating water carried through them, the production and disposal of these tubes may cause contamination problems.
PVC presents health and environmental risks given the emission of carcinogenic dioxins and chlorine from incinerators which burn PVC and other plastics, as well as the presence of phtalates, lead and cadmium in PVC.
Many cities and companies already adopt policies to phase out the use of PVC in their products and buildings, provided there is a better alternative. Where it had aimed to phase out PVC in its existing products in four years time, IKEA has almost completely managed to do so, but admits it still uses PVC for cable coating.
Comparing the PVC problem to a bath spilling over, the Austrian civil engineering company Mischek Gmbh urged the Commission to first close the tap and then deal with what is already spilt.
The spillover referred to is thousands of tons of PVC the E.U. cannot get rid of. Landfill isn't a viable option, argue ecologists and health campaigners alike, and nor is incineration.
Even though state-of-the-art incinerators nowadays have low chimney emissions levels, the residue that remains after burning contains heavy metals and dioxins.
Mandatory labeling of PVC and separate (mandatory) collection should prevent too much PVC from ending up among domestic waste in municipal incinerators.
Phtalates, additives used to soften PVC, pose a particular problem. One of them, di-2-ethylexyl phthalate, or DEHP, is a reproductive and developmental toxicant, to which neonatals are increasingly exposed. Because it doesn't bind with the plastic, DEHP can leak out of a PVC product. While making a point about its reprotoxic effect, toxicologist Vyvyan Howard said DEHP is basically found everywhere.
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